The Ending of The Invitation Explained

For the majority of its runtime, The Invitation presents as an isolated event in which a group of friends has been lured by a grieving mother and her new partner so that they can be ritualistically murdered. As the night progresses and the house guests are whittled down in a series of attacks, the tension seemingly revolves around the survivors’ attempts to escape the house in which they have become trapped. All the guests need to do is survive long enough to find a way out and then they will be safe… Or so they think.

The real twist of The Invitation‘s ending is far more unnerving and complicated. As written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, the majority of the tension in the film comes in two waves: first, the initial misunderstanding of what is occurring, and then the guests’ desperation to avoid their intended fate. For the first half of the film, divorcé Will (Logan Marshall-Green), his new girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) and other guests Tommy (Mike Doyle), Miguel (Jordi Vilasuso), Ben (Jay Larson), Claire (Marieh Delfino), and Gina (Michelle Krusiec) mistakenly believe that they have simply been invited to an awkward dinner party.

The assorted partygoers are looking to reconnect with Eden (Tammy Blanchard) in the wake of her divorce from Will following the death of their son Ty, as well as her attempted suicide. In the two years that have passed since they have all seen each other, Eden has found a new partner, David (Michiel Huisman) and made a pair of strange friends, Pruitt (John Carroll Lynch) and Sadie (Lindsay Burdge) – all of whom contribute to the sense of unease the pervades the first half of the film. There’s an undeniable feeling that something is not quite right with the evening’s festivities.

That element explodes into violence in the film’s last act when it is revealed that the group Eden, David and Pruitt belong to – The Invitation – is a cult that believes the way to create peace is through death. The remainder of the film is a desperate struggle for survival between hosts and guests that leaves all but Will, Kira, Tommy and a fatally injured Eden alive. After making their way outside, seemingly to safety, the group discovers that the red lantern David lit earlier in the evening is actually a sign post that confirms a murder party is happening inside. As the survivors survey the Los Angeles hills, they are confronted with the sight of dozens of other red lanterns as far as the eye can see, indicating that theirs was but one such incident.

Part of the reason that this ending works as well as it does is because by the time the extent of the chaos is revealed, the audience assumes that the danger has already passed. The film’s first two acts are rife with suspicion, mistrust and misdirection; director Karyn Kusama ratchets up the tension by literally stranding her audience inside the house along with the characters, maintaining an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia and inability to escape for nearly the entire film. By the time that the remaining characters stumble outside, there is an undeniable catharsis: characters and audience alike have survived the attempted murder plot and come out the other side. This sense of relief, however, is immediately undercut by the slow reveal of red lanterns lighting up the darkness, hinting nefariously at the vast conspiracy that was initially thought to be a small, contained, isolated incident.

The brief, fleeting image of a sea of red lights in the darkness is immensely disturbing and incredibly powerful . There’s no need for further explanation or denouement; the creative team eschews the temptation to reveal the extent of the damage or the aftermath in favour of ending the film with yet another note of uncertainty. The journey of The Invitation is one of heightened emotional mood swings: from the discomfort of Will and Eden’s initial reunion, to the suffocating grief that settles over dinner to the claustrophobic battle for survival all the way through to the final reveal of the cult’s widespread impact.

With this final shot, there’s no reassurance for the characters or the viewers. By sheer virtue of its mature restraint and the sucker punch of dread that it packs throughout, The Invitation is unequivocally one of the greatest horror films of the last decade. And a huge contributor to its success is that ending.